Editorial: Pinnacles NMon deserves to be redesignated as NP
If you've ever driven the 80 miles from Silicon Valley to hike the Pinnacles National Monument, you know its rugged beauty is well worth the trip -- and one of California's best kept secrets. Now Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Sam Farr want to change that by elevating the Pinnacles to be the nation's 59th national park. The idea, which would entail only negligible cost, deserves serious consideration from Congress.
The landscape can't match Yosemite for natural beauty, but then what can?
The Pinnacles is a treasure, with craggy spires reaching to the sky and spectacular hiking trails with breathtaking vistas.
Seeing the dramatic cliffs, President Theodore Roosevelt designated the region a national monument in 1908. The formations are an amazing study of tectonic motion. They were once part of the Neenach Volcano nearly 200 miles to the southeast, having moved north along the San Andreas Fault over thousands of years at about a half inch a year.